To schedule or not to schedule? Agentic and cooperative teams at call centers.

Abstract

Work at call centers is often designedaround technical solutions that implysome type of work schedule—every sec-ondthatanagentisnotonthephoneamountstopreciousqueuetimethatmustbe managed (Durrande-Moreau, 1999).Even activities such as coffee brakes arescheduled (Garcia et al., 2012) and mostcall centers define a minimum percent-age of the scheduled “time on the phone”(Garcia and Archer, 2012). This typeof work design might imply unfavor-able working conditions for employees,which in turn affect well-being, learn-ing, and how agents cope with the rapidexternal and internal changes in work-ing life. Indeed, performance at call cen-ters (measured as the percentage of timeon the phone/scheduled phone-time) hasbeen shown to be negatively related toimportantworkclimateaspects(e.g.,senseof autonomy and responsibility, relationwith managers and colleagues; Garcia andArcher, 2012), employees’ view of howsuccessful the organization is in reachingitscorevalues(e.g.,communalvaluessuchas helpfulness toward the customer or col-leagues; Garcia and Archer, 2012), andalso employees’ well-being (e.g., positiveaffect, life satisfaction). Scheduling agents’time on the phone might also limit theirability to work efficiently within the allo-cated working time (i.e., performance),probably because the amounts of incom-ing calls are completely outside the lead-ers’ or employees’ control—a commoncharacteristic of workplaces in which ser-vices are delivered by phone ( Ryan andPloyhart, 2003). A work situation withhigh demands and low freedom, throughrigorous control of working procedures,creates a feeling of lack of control whichcancausementaloverload,inturn,leadingto mental and physical health problems.Moreover, the low level of responsibil-ity that is also common in call centers(e.g., employees do not need or are notexpected to make decisions to improveservices), along the lack of environmen-tal control and performance monitoring,might influence agents to become pas-sive (Karasek, 1979) and disempowered(Archer et al., 2014; Jimmefors et al.,2014).Recently, together with our colleagueswe have also found that individuals’ com-munal character traits (i.e., the tendencyto care and help others and being toler-ant and empathic) are negatively associ-ated to performance at call centers overa 6-month period. In other words, callcenters seem to indeed disempower work-ers by scheduling every single task andby individualizing the way performance ismeasured, which diminishes their sense ofautonomy and responsibility (i.e., agencyor Self-directedness) and helpful behav-ior, social tolerance and empathy (i.e.,communion or Cooperativeness). Thisis extremely counterproductive; especiallyin light of what call centers’ agentsstate is the most positive factor intheir work environment: their colleagues.